Desperate Housewives star Vanessa Williams made a shocking revelation of child abuse in her memoir ‘You Have No Idea’. Williams penned the revealing book with her mother Helen. The top story thus far details Vanessa’s recollection of molestation at the hands of a female family friend when she was 10 years old.
“Family friends who had a daughter invited me to visit their friends in California with them. The family we stayed in had two kids.” On of the kids was 18-year old Susan.
‘Susan, who was 18, smoked, drove a car and was the epitome of cool. [My friend] Nancy and I slept in the den. One night Susan crept in.’ ‘She told me to lie down on the rug. I was confused. Are we going to play a game? As I tried to make sense of it, Susan pulled down the bloomers of my cotton baby-doll pajamas. ‘What are you doing?’ I asked. ‘Don’t worry – it’ll feel good.’” I lay there paralyzed. What was going on? I didn’t speak. She kept at (the molestation) for I don’t know how long. She slid my bloomers back up and whispered: ‘Don’t tell anyone.’ ”
It took years for Vanessa to realize what she had been through and before she shared the experience with anyone.
“For years I kept Susan’s visit to myself, I didn’t really understand until college. I was with my boyfriend and it hit me and I blurted out: ‘Oh my God – I was molested.’ ”
“After that trip I felt something change in me,” she notes. “I had always been defiant, but I became a bit more rebellious. I began to pull away from my parents.”
In spite of the incident vanessa insists she has moved on.
“It didn’t paralyze me. And I don’t dwell.”
